Hu Jia jailed for three-and-a-half years
p2pnet news | Freedom:- Only months away from the Beijing Olympics, China has jailed blogger and human rights activist Hu Jia jailed for three-and-a-half years —- for writing five articles and giving two interviews.
Hu was tried for subversion after criticising ruling Communist Party.
His case became an international cause célèbre for many human rights groups which, “contend that the Communist Party is rounding up dissidents to silence criticism of the government before the Olympics in Beijing in August,” said the New York Times.
Activist, and journalists from all over the world waited outside the court to hear his sentence, says the BBC, going on:
“As well as being sent to prison, Mr Hu was deprived of political rights for one year.”
Hu Jia’s wife, Zeng Jinyan, also a blogger, said she hadn’t been allowed to see her husband.
Her husband has a liver complaint which had been exacerbated by his time in jail and there were, “tiring, endless questions without sleep,” she said, according to the story.
“Unemployed former factory worker, Yang Chunlin, 54, gathered more than 10,000 signatures on a petition last year, appealing against illegal seizures of land from poor farmers by powerful local officials in the northeastern province of Heilongjiang,” said the Toronto Star recently.
The petition letter began: “We want human rights, not the Olympics.” But iYang was “promptly arrested” and also charged with trying to subvert state power, “a broad charge frequently used against those who openly criticize the government”.
After Yang’s trial last month, which lasted less than a day, “Sophie Richardson of Human Rights Watch said she feared that, “soon it will be official that objecting to the Olympics is a crime in China,” it states.
Hu, 34, campaigned for complete religious freedom, “and a revision of the situation in Tibet” which, AsiaNews.it has him saying, “should be free to decide its own future”.
Over time, “he has also become a reference point for Chinese dissidents: he has gathered articles, prepared legal appeals and presented reports of other opponents to the Chinese regime to the International community,” it says, going on:
“He has collaborated with international media and foreign embassies, providing material regarding the violation of human rights committed by the Communist Party.
“Evidence presented against Hu in court included interviews he gave to foreign media and political articles that he wrote for the internet, but above all his ‘relations with foreign powers, bent on discrediting China’.
“This is a case of political manoeuvring to crackdown on all forms of protest ahead of the Olympics,” says his lawyer, his lawyer, Li Fangping, in the story.
China state news agency Xinhua says Hu made a “confession of crime and acceptance of punishment”, leading the court to, “issue a relatively light sentence,” says the Guardian.
Hu’s two lawyers said he had acknowledged “excesses” and, “In the end, I think that he came to accept that some of his statements were contrary to the law as it stands,” said defence lawyer Li Jinsong, according to a story.
Hu has 10 days starting on Friday to decide whether to appeal, but Li said he was unlikely to do so.
China’s foreign ministry said critics were interfering in the country’s internal affairs.
“We will not stop implementing the rule of law ahead of holding the Olympics,” this story quotes spokeswoman Jiang Yu as saying.
Hu was jailed in December last year after spending more than 200 days under house arrest in a Beijing apartment complex.
His wife, Zeng Jinyan, “who has also often criticised the Chinese government, and their infant daughter, were still under house arrest, “and their telephone is cut off,” says the story, adding:
“Zeng attended the hearing, emerging with her baby from the courthouse visibly upset before being whisked away in a police vehicle.”
jailed for three-and-a-half years – Activist Hu Jia: on trial in China, March 19, 2008
New York Times – China Tries Rights Advocate; Verdict Expected in Week, March 19, 2008
BBC - Anguish over China activist sentence, April 3, 2008
Toronto Star – China slams jail door on Olympic dissent, March 19, 2008
AsiaNews.it – Chinese dissident leader Hu Jia, condemned for subversion, April 3, 2008
Guardian – China jails rights activist outspoken on Tibet, April 3, 2008
Use free p2pnet newsfeeds for your site. It’s really easy!
Subscribe to p2pnet.net | | rss feed: http://p2pnet.net/p2p.rss | | Mobile – http://p2pnet.net/index-wml.php
Net access blocked by government restrictions? Use Psiphon from the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto. Go here for details. Download here.
April 3rd, 2008 at 12:06 pm
How can we allow this piece of shit of country to host the Olympics?
April 3rd, 2008 at 3:49 pm
I wonder how long they had to beat him for before he confessed…
April 5th, 2008 at 12:06 am
Would be nice to see their government corruption dissolved. Maybe this is the fuse to something bigger.
April 6th, 2008 at 8:00 pm
It would be nice to see our (Police States of Amerika) government corruption dissolved as well. The P.S.A. is no better than China with the exception that we are still allowed to exercise some free speech. Local government steal land from citizens all the time and use it for private purposes. Even the President of the P.S.A. (George Bush) has called the constitution, “a God damned piece of paper.” Just as there are thugs in the Chinese government, there are as many thug in P.S.A. governments.
April 19th, 2008 at 9:20 pm
Apparently you haven’t read about the alarming amount of brutality associated the Chinese government since Mao Tse Tung.
Americans are not fed to mass graves outside of town for expressing “Anti Government” speech.
The fact that you are still alive and undetained proves my point.